In the year 2017, Marvel announced that they promoted their long-time editor C.B. Cebulski to the editor-in-chief position. For taking up the role he had to shift from Shanghai to New York. Cebulski had earlier spent numerous years working under Marvel’s Asia division. Hence it was a great opportunity for the writer and editor for Marvel Comics. However, his relocation to NYC led to some shocking revelations.
The writer revealed that he used a Japanese pseudonym for publishing his comics, based on Asian characters.
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C.B. Cebulski accused of cultural appropriation for using pseudonym Akira Yoshida
As confirmed by Entertainment Weekly, Cebulski wrote several comics in 2005 and 2006 under the Japanese pen name Akira Yoshida. Most of those comics featured Asian characters or themes. The news was broken by Bleeding Cool, as they revealed the past work of the white writer, who created a fake identity for personal gain.
Several writers use pseudonyms to publish their works, however, Cebulski took the facade too far. He gave interviews pretending to be Akira Yoshida and created a fake backstory for it. According to Bleeding Cool‘s reports, Cebulski even kept a Japanese translator at the Marvel offices. He used to get lunch with editors pretending to be Yoshida, to make people believe that Yoshida was a real person.
The action helped Cebulski’s real identity remain hidden from the Marvel team. The truth could not hide for long, and former Marvel assistant editor Gregg Schigiel shared the reality behind the story. In the statement, the Marvel employee’s name was switched with the names of characters in The West Wing.
For the uninitiated, Marvel editors were forbidden from creating comics for the company, hence Cebulski might have written under the unreal identity in order to get his work published on its own merits. But it could also be a way to artificially gain authenticity as most of the Yoshida comics were set in Asia.
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C.B. Cebulski confessed using an Asian pseudonym
The writer Cebulski confessed to Marvel executives that in 2003, he was planning to leave Marvel at the time. Hence he devised the pseudonym to establish himself as a writer for companies like Dreamwave and Dark Horse. But he was hired for another Marvel editor on the basis of that work.
He shared in a statement to Bleeding Cool,
“I stopped writing under the pseudonym Akira Yoshida after about a year. It wasn’t transparent, but it taught me a lot about writing, communication, and pressure. I was young and naïve and had a lot to learn back then. But this is all old news that has been dealt with, and now as Marvel’s new editor-in-chief, I’m turning a new page and am excited to start sharing all my Marvel experiences with up-and-coming talent around the globe.”
Cebulski admitted to having used the pseudonym, Akira Yoshida. He was accused of cultural appropriation and yellowfacing because of the stereotypical figures Cebulski used in his Yoshida stories.
Dark Horse publishers had also issued a statement, they worked with Akira Yoshida in the early 2000s but were completely unaware that Yoshida was a pretense for another person.
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Source-Twitter
